[11] Nine countries entered the competition, including the reigning champions, the United Arab Republic, meaning for the first time a qualification tournament was required.

The United Arab Republic, as holders, and Ethiopia as hosts, qualified automatically meaning each needed to play only one game to reach the final.

[citation needed] In the 1963 African Cup of Nations, they finished fourth, after losing the third place battle against the United Arab Republic.

[citation needed] Ethiopia hosted the Nations Cup tournament in 1976, but failed to progress to the final four, finishing third in the group, behind Guinea and Egypt.

[28] In the 2002 CECAFA Cup, Ethiopia failed to qualify past the group stage of the competition; they lost all four of their games against Zanzibar,[29] Uganda,[30] Somalia, and Rwanda.

[33] The EFF fired Figge in May 2003, even though the team had won two games and was second in their group in the 2004 African Cup of Nations qualifiers.

There were 9 teams in regional tournament: Burundi, Zanzibar, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Sudan, Kenya, Uganda and Somalia.

[36] Ethiopia was led by captain Zewdu Bekele,[37] and again by coach Asrat who was recalled to the position a mere two weeks before the beginning of the tournament.

[38] After defeating Burundi, tying with Rwanda and beating Tanzania, and Zanzibar, the team advanced to the semi-finals for the first time since 2001.

[citation needed] The Ethiopian national team was the champion of the same CECAFA Cup competition again in 2005, in Kigali, Rwanda.

At the 2006 CECAFA Cup in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia lost to Tanzania[44] but beat Djibouti and Malawi in the group stage to advance to the quarterfinals against Zambia.

CECAFA secretary general Nicholas Musonye—not present at the emergency committee meeting—threatened that he'd cancel the entire tournament should match be replayed.

[48] At 2007 CECAFA Cup, Ethiopia suffered a 1–3 loss to Zanzibar and a hard-fought 0–0 draw with Sudan in which they failed to produce a goal despite star Fikru Tefera's call up.

FIFA's executive committee had voted a month before to lift the suspension so long as that EFF organized and chaired an elective general assembly.

[58] At the 2009 CECAFA Cup, Ethiopia defeated Djibouti 5–0,[59] but lost 0–1 to Zambia and 0–2 to Kenya, thus finishing third in the group and getting eliminated from the regional tournament.

[65] Tournament's star players and goal scorers were Shimelis Bekele of Awassa City and Oumed Oukri of Defence Force.

Ethiopian Football Federation cited disciplinary grounds for his dismissal just a month after the team's 4–0 defeat at the hands of the Nigerian Green Eagles in Group B of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualification in Abuja.

[67] In May 2011, the EFF appointed former Zimbabwe and Namibia manager Tom Saintfiet as coach in place of Iffy Onuora.

[68] However, Tom Saintfiet left his job as Ethiopia's national soccer coach after just five months, citing "broken promises" as the reason for his departure.

[72] With a 5–0 aggregate victory over Somalia, Ethiopia joined South Africa, Botswana and Central African Republic (CAR) in Group A.

[76] The team eventually was eliminated by Nigeria with two defeats in the Third Round, though it remains as the best performance ever by Ethiopia in any World Cup qualification.

Win Draw Loss Fixture The following players were called up for the 2025 AFCON qualification matches against Tanzania and DR Congo on 16 and 19 November 2024.